Williams' Collection Volume 6 guesses

[Rayder]

For me, I play more TPA simply because I have 100 tables (well....99 actual re-creations) in one app, but with Zen, there are currently only like 18 re-creations. While I own all the Zen originals, they just don't really appeal to me like re-creations of real life tables do.

That might change once (or if) Zen ever reaches that kind of number of "real" tables.

 

[Scared Stiff]

While the UMP and Vol.5 can keep us playing for a long time it would be nice to hear which tables Vol.6 will have.

Also I disagree about "been there done that" by TPA, as the bad implementation of something doesn't mean it's there at all. I gave TPA several tries in the past but the physics were so bad that it always drove me off so I just skipped it totally, and the turn of events have shown it was the right decision. Paying so much money for seeing just 3D models and hearing ROM sounds while having a bad & sour gameplay experience is not "been there done that", but rather "I threw my money in the toilet". It's like paying for a BMW but getting a BMW chassis with a FIAT engine under the hood.

Totally agree. I would take Gorgar at this point. Would love Centaur and Pinbot. Any improvement over TPA would be welcomed because Zen has for both better and worse spoiled me. I almost never boot up TPA anymore, and I have almost every table they did. But the physics aren’t as good, the lighting isn’t as good, the sound isn’t as good, the graphics aren’t as clear sometimes, and it all drives me nuts.

That being said, I would LOVE some tables never done before. Still waiting on Flash and Vector as I have said both here and to Zen many times. Please make it happen Zen! Oh...and Hot Doggin would be nice too! Desperately need a snow skiing table.

 

[vfpcoder]

I also still play quite a few of the TPA tables on my VPCabs Vertigo cabinet. I'm one of the few that purchased the Arcooda cabinet enhancement, and really enjoy the way it's implemented on my 2 monitor system. For a 1st gen product it is really quite nice. And we continued to receive updates to the software for months after TPA lost the Bally/Williams license. I've often wondered if FarSight would have been motivated to upgrade the TPA engine if this had taken off. Of course, it drives me crazy to play "Attack From Mars" and/or "Road Show" via TPA; but I have a choice, plus access to dozens and dozens of additional tables. And, yes, "Big Shot" and "Eight Ball Deluxe" are among my favorites along with "Bride of Pinbot", "Star Trek:The Next Generation", and "Funhouse". Perhaps this new Toyshock implementation will spur FarSight to do *something*.

As for Zen: Please give us "Revenge From Mars" already! The video shots in that game can be perfectly emulated by on-table animations which Zen loves to do! Why the delay??

 

[Pete]

^ afm2 would be great! i wish i had kept a calander of dates on when all the other packs came out so i had a better understanding of the random wait times. feel like any day now we will hear something. i wonder if we will see some of the bally/williams sneak its way into other catagories, SW episode one for example might find its way into the star wars section, its even a possibility that indiana jones will cost a bit too much and the price tag could very well give them rights to make original tables to lump with it for maximum extra profits creating an IJ section.

 

[Cloda]

^ afm2 would be great! i wish i had kept a calander of dates on when all the other packs came out so i had a better understanding of the random wait times. feel like any day now we will hear something. i wonder if we will see some of the bally/williams sneak its way into other catagories, SW episode one for example might find its way into the star wars section, its even a possibility that indiana jones will cost a bit too much and the price tag could very well give them rights to make original tables to lump with it for maximum extra profits creating an IJ section.

Two things come to mind based on Blahcade podcast interviews with Mel; the one is that they already had two originals ready to be released in the beginning of 2019, and he explained that they are looking at ramping their release cycle up to a 6 week release schedule. Unfortunately that fell by the wayside after Vol 4 and my suspicions has all along been that the Star Wars Switch release for some or other reason demanded exclusivity in terms of marketing etc. and that skippered the plans for the 6 weeks schedule. Vol 5 was released more or less 6 weeks after Universal Monsters, so hopefully that is as indication as you say that we can expect a new announcement soon.

The big question is if it is going to be Vol 6, a licensed Williams release i.e. Indiana Jones, Zen Star Wars originals, or Zen originals such as Operencia, Dread Nautical, or Castle Storm 2. I only have one wish, and that is that which ever tables come out next, is also designed with Williams Classic physics from the get-go. I sincerely hope that Zen will create all their originals from now on with Classic Arcade / Tournament physics.

I recall hearing somebody somewhere saying something about Zen creating originals along with real life tables. My dream pack would the Williams Indiana Jones table along with two Zen original Indiana Jones tables bases on the LucasArt games - Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis.

 

[daxyd]

I actually emailed Zen about putting Cactus Canyon in the game... They said they'll look into it.

 

[curtis]

I actually emailed Zen about putting Cactus Canyon in the game... They said they'll look into it.

Please, please, please on Cactus Canyon. I'm looking forward to whatever the next volume contains.

 

[Scared Stiff]

I really REALLY want Catcus Canyon. No doubt Zen would do wonderous things with it. Maybe even actually finish it.

 

[tandigab]

+1 vote for Cactus Canyon

 

[Scared Stiff]

So my question isn’t so much what, but WHEN? I am hoping for a release sometime in March. As usual, it sure would be nice to get a hint instead of silence. Obviously the complaints about this lack of communication have been completely ignored. Never a good idea to ignore your customers.

 

[tomwaits]

Rise of Skywalker will be released to streaming/bluray next month, and zen has almost exhausted the non-licensed DMD williams tables that don't have gambling in the ruleset. I suspect they'll announce a pack of zen original Star Wars tables for March...

 

[Pete]

my guess is zen cant even do all the licenced tables TPA did until the already paid for rights expire. for example lets say the deal was TPA gets addams family for 8 years, that makes zen have to wait 8 years from the date of that deal. Or TPA must be compensated and agree to let their deal go. it doesnt matter if another company bought the layouts of the tables the properties are seperate. just because farsight cant sell it anymore doesnt mean the timed contracts they have are voided. Zen could very well be trying to pay farsight to let those go.

 

[wilbers]

my guess is zen cant even do all the licenced tables TPA did until the already paid for rights expire. for example lets say the deal was TPA gets addams family for 8 years, that makes zen have to wait 8 years from the date of that deal. Or TPA must be compensated and agree to let their deal go. it doesnt matter if another company bought the layouts of the tables the properties are seperate. just because farsight cant sell it anymore doesnt mean the timed contracts they have are voided. Zen could very well be trying to pay farsight to let those go.

I wonder how many of the secondary licenses Farsight got had/have a time limit in them (or renewal cost). Could be nearly all of them, or just the odd one; doesn't mean any are exclusive though. The only one we know for sure how long it was for is AC/DC since we know when it was released, and when it was pulled from sale.

 

[trash80]

I wonder how many of the secondary licenses Farsight got had/have a time limit in them (or renewal cost). Could be nearly all of them, or just the odd one; doesn't mean any are exclusive though. The only one we know for sure how long it was for is AC/DC since we know when it was released, and when it was pulled from sale.

AC/DC being pulled was due to the Stern agreement with the AC/DC IP owners expiring, Farsight didn't have any license agreement with AC/DC. The only exclusive digital pinball rights license agreement that Farsight has is with Cassandra Peterson (Elvira).

 

[Firefox2000]

I wonder how many of the secondary licenses Farsight got had/have a time limit in them (or renewal cost). Could be nearly all of them, or just the odd one; doesn't mean any are exclusive though. The only one we know for sure how long it was for is AC/DC since we know when it was released, and when it was pulled from sale.

The ACDC tables are a strange one, they are gone from steam, but you can still play them free with a token on Stern vr pinball on the oculus store, but you can't buy them to own, but you can still own the entire stern PBA collection including the ACDC tables via the retail discs on the xbox and PS4....i mean these licence are turning into daily tv soap operas. lol

 

[shutyertrap]

So my question isn’t so much what, but WHEN? I am hoping for a release sometime in March. As usual, it sure would be nice to get a hint instead of silence. Obviously the complaints about this lack of communication have been completely ignored. Never a good idea to ignore your customers.

They aren't ignoring their customers so much as not making promises that they then have to back away from. Look at it from a marketing perspective; you want to announce and then release soon after to capitalize on customer hype. If you announce too early, you give customers the chance to second guess their own excitement.

my guess is zen cant even do all the licenced tables TPA did until the already paid for rights expire. for example lets say the deal was TPA gets addams family for 8 years, that makes zen have to wait 8 years from the date of that deal. Or TPA must be compensated and agree to let their deal go. it doesnt matter if another company bought the layouts of the tables the properties are seperate. just because farsight cant sell it anymore doesnt mean the timed contracts they have are voided. Zen could very well be trying to pay farsight to let those go.

No way did anyone license out for 8 years, that's just not how things work. At the most, you sign an exclusivity agreement that will last for 2 or 3 years tops, and then anyone else can come in and sign on the to license too, or sign their own exclusivity agreement (UbiSoft did this with South Park, which is why it can't be sold by Zen anymore). The only license I think FarSight continues to keep up to date is the one for Doctor Who. All the others are up for grabs at this point.

 

[shutyertrap]

The ACDC tables are a strange one, they are gone from steam, but you can still play them free with a token on Stern vr pinball on the oculus store, but you can't buy them to own, but you can still own the entire stern PBA collection including the ACDC tables via the retail discs on the xbox and PS4....i mean these licence are turning into daily tv soap operas. lol

You can buy the retail discs, until all the printed discs are sold. Arcooda bought a whole mess of those Arcooda Pinball Arcade packs so that despite FarSight no longer being able to sell digitally, Arcooda could still sell long by essentially buying 'retail discs', despite them being purely digital. And Oculus is the one who paid for the AC/DC license, which is probably why you can play the free token version but not own for yourself.

 

[pinfan7]

They aren't ignoring their customers so much as not making promises that they then have to back away from.

Too bad they made promises about a 6-week release cycle And where are we now? 11 weeks and 2 days, if you exclude 2 weeks of christmas vacations, 9 weeks and 2 days and still nothing but silence. UMP and Vol.4 was even worse, 22 weeks.

 

[shutyertrap]

Too bad they made promises about a 6-week release cycle And where are we now? 11 weeks and 2 days, if you exclude 2 weeks of christmas vacations, 9 weeks and 2 days and still nothing but silence. UMP and Vol.4 was even worse, 22 weeks.

Said in our interview with Mel, and it was what they hoped to achieve, not promised. But it does go to prove my point, in that people take these bits of info and then expect them to become law, and then they complain. Seems to me the best approach is to shut the hell up, which is why even those of us with inside contacts get so little info leaked to us anymore. All I want is good product. It’s why I’m fine waiting for Naughty Dog to finish up Last of Us 2 despite the delays. The Last Guardian was well worth it missing the entire PS3 cycle. So long as it’s not Duke Nukem Forever, delaying is often worth the wait.

 

[yespage]

Too bad they made promises about a 6-week release cycle And where are we now? 11 weeks and 2 days, if you exclude 2 weeks of christmas vacations, 9 weeks and 2 days and still nothing but silence. UMP and Vol.4 was even worse, 22 weeks.

Some people need to seriously stop thinking that Zen owes them anything. If that is all they release, it was great. Take advantage of what you have, not that which does not exist.